ISLAMABAD
Senate’s standing committee on Interior on Monday discussed “Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2022”, aimed at countering the issue of ‘enforced disappearances’.
At the outset of meeting, State Minister for Law and Justice, Senator Shahadat Awan apprised the committee that the Bill is regarding forced disappearances and in the Bill it is stated that “If a complainant filed a petition against forced disappearance and if the petition found fake after some time then the petitioner will be awarded imprisonment for a term extending to five years”. He added that this clause will hinder public to file petition against forced disappearances and there is vital need to revisit the few parts of the Bill. The Committee advised the Interior Ministry to remove ambiguity in the Bill and deferred the consideration of the Bill till the next meeting.
Moreover, the senate body discussed the Bill titled “Anti Rape (Amendment) Bill, 2022” introduced by Senator Mohsin Aziz. The Chair told the committee that the Bill aims to trace and track the location of the offenders so that they can be restrained from committing any offence in the future. State Minister for Law and Justice, Senator ShahadatAwan claimed that the Bill is against the Article 15 of the Constitution which provides freedom of movement to the citizens and however it is quite difficult to trace the location of offenders because it involves the establishment of new mechanism for the purpose. The committee deferred the consideration of the Bill for further deliberations till the next meeting.
In addition to that, committee discussed the recent incidents of arrests, harassments and threats to political leaders and journalists. Senator Mohsin Aziz reiterated that “We do not have any problem with arrests but we just want to make sure that rule of law must be followed”. Senator Fawzia Arshad inquired the DIG ICT Sohail Zafar Chatha that “If the police had warrant at the time of arrest of Shahbaz Gill? In reply to that, DIG ICT told that in cognizable offences police is competent to arrest the accused without warrant.
The Chairman Committee Senator Mohsin Aziz deferred the deliberations on the matter till next meeting and directed the IG Islamabad police to attend the next meeting.
